Marlon double equals Christie

Midlands athletes saved their best till last as Coventry Godiva's Marlon Devonish scooped an historic sprint double and Birmingham University student Somto Eruchie blasted the European Championship selection wide open with a shock 200 metres bronze.

Midlands athletes saved their best till last as Coventry Godiva's Marlon Devonish scooped an historic sprint double and Birmingham University student Somto Eruchie blasted the European Championship selection wide open with a shock 200 metres bronze.

Devonish became the first man in nearly two decades to win both the 100m and 200m at the AAA national championships - Linford Christie being the last in 1988 - as he held off his opposition to claim his fourth title over the longer distance.

With the absence of Christian Malcolm and the possible retirement of Darren Campbell, the 30-year-old is firmly established as the top sprinter in the country and will go to the European Championships next month with a genuine prospect of taking a medal.

This weekend could not have gone any better for him and although he didn't dominate the final he was pleased to have held off the rising tide of young athletes, led by Eruchie and runner-up Rikki Fifton.

Devonish will definitely compete in the 200m in Gothenburg as will Fifton but if Malcolm - the fastest Briton this year - fails to regain fitness in the next few weeks Eruchie could be in line for a surprise call-up.

The Selly Oak runner took nearly a quarter of a second off his personal best and stormed across the line in 20.79 seconds, well within the development standard for Sweden.

Although he is still slower than Tim Abeyie and Dwayne Grant on paper given the fact he beat both of them yesterday, he is hopeful that the selectors will see him as a face for the future.

"I am so happy," the medical science student said. "At the start of the season I never believed this would come this soon.

"But as the rounds went by I felt stronger and stronger and by the final I was expecting to medal.

"If they don't select me that's just the way it is, because of my education at the start of the season I just wanted to get some conditioning work in and become a bit stronger."

Unfortunately, a few PBs aside, the afternoon had been something of a damp squib for Birchfield athletes with a mouth-watering high jump competition failing to fulfil expectations.

Birmingham-based Ger-maine Mason, a Jamaican who assumed British nationality a few months ago, was supposed to claim his first national crown but jumped poorly and finished only second with a height of 2.22m, six centimetres below his season's best.

Martyn Bernard won the event with 2.25m but Manchester's Sports City remains an unfortunate venue for Hall Green's Tom Parsons, who had hoped to equal that mark and in doing so get the development qualifying standard for Sweden.

Instead he disappointed with third place and 2.19m - well below his best as he extended his unhappy record in an arena in which he has always failed to hit top form.

However, Parsons was not as disappointed as fellow Stag Zoe Derham, who went into the hammer competition as the

favourite following the retirement of long-time No 1 - and her coach - Lorraine Shaw.

But Derham never recaptured the rhythm that saw her throw a personal best of 65.86m last weekend as she fell more than four metres short and ended up out of the medals. "It was not my best day at the office," Derham said. "Perhaps I put a bit too much pressure on myself coming in. There's no excuse really."

Commonwealth heptathlon champion Kelly Sotherton had a better afternoon as she came first in the long jump and set a new personal mark of 13.97m in the shot.

Her long jump was solid rather than spectacular and her winning distance of 6.51m was some way below her best but nevertheless she was a clear winner ahead of rival Jade Johnson.

In fact her first two jumps were further than Johnson managed all afternoon as Sotherton confirmed her supremacy in recent years with her second straight national title.

Birchfield team-mate Amy Harris, ranked No 3 in the country going in, will be less pleased with the fact she was beaten into fourth place by sprint hurdler Sarah Claxton.

Harris' preparation had been interrupted by a ham-string injury although she had hoped to break her personal best of 6.38m ahead of next month's World Junior Championships in Beijing.

But she was unable to cope with an unpredictable wind or better her opening effort of 6.20m and produced two fouls as Claxton - who won the 100m hurdles on Saturday - covered 6.28m in round five.

Helen Karagounis struggled to put some off-track problems behind her and ran a poor 54.19secs to finish fourth in the 400m.

Steeplechaser Tom Payn came home in seventh position and then professed himself content with a new personal best but Dale Garland broke a sequence of two consecutive silver medals in the 400m hurdles to slump to fourth place.

He revealed afterwards that he is likely to have to undergo surgery for a hernia in the coming days which will put him out of action for at least six weeks.